My Friends

A Novel

De: Fredrik Backman

Narrado por: Marin Ireland

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

A Most Anticipated Book of 2025: Goodreads • USA TODAY • Marie Claire • BookPage • Literary Lifestyle • Book Riot • Sunset Magazine • Totally Booked with Zibby Owens * A Fallon Book Club Pick

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anxious People returns with an unforgettably funny, deeply moving tale of four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life twenty-five years later.

Most people don’t even notice them—three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise, and she is determined to find out the story of these three enigmatic figures.

Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. These lost souls find in each other a reason to get up each morning, a reason to dream, a reason to love.

Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that will unexpectedly be placed into eighteen-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it. The closer she gets to the painting’s birthplace, the more nervous she becomes about what she’ll find. Louisa is proof that happy endings don’t always take the form we expect in this stunning testament to the transformative, timeless power of friendship and art.

Reseñas de la Crítica

Praise for Fredrik Backman

“Backman captures the messy essence of being human...clever and affecting, as likely to make you laugh out loud as it is to make you cry.” —Washington Post

“The perfect balance of heartwarming and heart-wrenching…Fredrik Backman has a way of simply yet elegantly describing relationships. We can all be idiots, but we’re still all human beings worthy of connection and love.” –NPR

“Everything Backman’s pen touches oozes with insight and heart.” —Amazon Book Review

“Backman is a masterful writer, his characters familiar yet distinct, flawed yet heroic.”—Kirkus Reviews

“As popular Swedish exports go, Backman is up there with Abba and Stieg Larssson.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Backman is the Dickens of our age, and though you'll cry, your heart is safe in his hands.”—Green Valley News (Arizona)

"Fredrik Backman, the talented Swedish novelist, is a witty writer and a keen observer. Golden Voice narrator Marin Ireland grandly performs this story of art, friendship, and what it means to be a teen. Ireland replicates the snarky tone of Louisa, who has just released herself from foster care to go see the work of art that is the fulcrum of the plot. Ireland captures the spirit of four teenagers—Kim Kim, Joar, Ali, and Ted—whom we see 25 years earlier in flashbacks. She beautifully delivers Ted’s slightly different accent and his melancholy mood as he and the chattering Louisa take a cross-country train ride to the quartet’s homeplace. Backman has created indelible characters and laugh-out-loud moments. Ireland is simply splendid."

You become one of them.

You learn a little more about how to be a human in ways that are wonderful.

Not one of his best

Although I don't consider this to be in my top five Backman books, it still delivers. Classic, heartfelt, sad yet happy. Definitely worth the read

Great lines

Some memorable lines like "Children are not resposible for their parents happiness."

"Friend no longer here are winks from heaven.

Loverd the book but like most of hos books a little melancholy.

Great story

Great story with wonderful character development. It takes you on quite the journey. It’s not a predictable story! The narrator does a wonderful job!

Engaging story

At first I was put off by the melancholy overtone, but I stuck with it and I’m glad - it was a truly engaging story.

My new favourite book

I loved this book. I laughed and cried through the whole book. I didn’t want it to end.

uneven

Brilliant in the beginning and the middle with plot, language, character development. Rushed, not thought through, too verbose, and primitive in the last third of the book.

So much emotion

Beautifully written and narrated. This book brought up all the feelings. The story was woven together with amazing skill.

Fantastic

Best book I’ve read in a long time!! Highly recommend! 10 of 5 stars for sure.

His best yet?

Oh, my heart. I read this because I loved A Man Called Ove and the Beartown Trilogy. The Beartown Trilogy is almost mythically wonderful for me, so oddly I was unprepared for how much I would be affected by this novel. I felt like he had read my inner monologue and adapted it to his purposes. I felt like he had found my childhood friends and painted them in light. I felt like he had determined how to pass goodness from one improbable genius to another, to express love to those who were the least able to receive it and have them receive it. This is a beautiful book full of love and kindness and sadness and joy and loyalty in the face of all opposition. I loved it, and am a better person for having read it. A triumph, a paean, an ode to friendship and family—chosen and inherited—across the generations. To C. Jat, wherever and whomever and whenever you might be, I love you and I believe in you.